Hiding Out At The Circle C

'I think we've lost him.' She nodded and pulled closer, burrowing her face and icy nose into his neck.

And right there in the dark, in the most dangerous situation of his life, his heart swelled with such an overwhelming protectiveness, it took his breath away.

'He couldn't have followed us this far without a light, could he?' she asked.

'No.' He hugged her close for a moment, then made them go a little farther to a small clearing that was lined with sharp, jutting rocks. 'We can't go back,' he said. 'Not until the sun comes up. It isn't safe.' He pointed to the rocky side of a ravine close to them. 'See over there? Some of those rocks cover shallow caves. We'll rest there.'

He helped Haley climb up the rocks-not an easy feat in the dark. Several times he caught her as she slipped, saving her from a nasty fall. Finally, at the top, they settled with their backs against the sheer granite, covered overhead by an outreach of stone. Darkness loomed around them, so complete that Cam couldn't ascertain exactly how big an area their small cave afforded them. But if they didn't light a fire and they kept their voices down, no one could see them, even if someone passed directly beneath them in the bush.

Pulling Haley into the crook of his arm, Cam stared at the opening of their cave, his heart still thundering from their escape. When he could breathe normally again, he gave Haley a slight squeeze. 'You okay?'

He felt her nod against his shoulder and he wished it weren't so damn dark. 'We're safe enough for now.' She shivered and he ran his hand up and down her arm, pulling her closer.

'He'll find us in the morning.'

'Haley-'

She jerked back from him. 'You're still mad at me, I suppose. I'm sorry, Cam. I know I deserve this, but you don't.'

'You don't deserve- Come back here.' His stretching fingers couldn't find her. 'Where are you, dammit?' He crawled forward, found her huddled against the back wall. On his knees before her, he cursed the dark that made it impossible to see her expression clearly. 'What the hell did you mean you deserve this? No one deserves to be chased with a gun through the wilderness, hunted down like an animal.'

'I brought this on you,' she said softly. 'When all I ever wanted was to protect you. And the others. Where're Nellie and Jason? And Zach, Cam. Where are they?'

'They're safe. We heard your phone conversation. Jason took Nellie into town. And Zach was supposed to get help and be at the airport-'

'To arrest me.'

'To protect you.'

'You were going to turn me in.'

'I wanted you safe, dammit.'

'It doesn't matter. I would have turned myself in long ago, if it was that simple. I'm afraid for you. I wanted to draw him away from Colorado.' Her voice sounded bitter. 'But now we won't know if Zach, Jason and Nellie are safe, really safe, until we get back there. God, if something happened to them, any of them, it'll be all my fault.'

'No.' He believed, had to believe, that Zach had gotten out. 'Zach will be all right. He knows how to take care of himself.'

'You have every right to hate me.'

He touched her, found her sitting cross-legged, her head in her hands. 'Hate you?' He slid his fingers into her hair and held her face, trying to blink away the darkness, struggling to see more than just her outline. 'For someone so smart, Haley, you can be incredibly slow-witted. I told you how I felt about you.'

She shoved his hands away. 'You can't still mean it.'

Flowing adrenaline had his usually nonexistent temper kicking in. 'Stop it.' Again he reached for her, but she'd started to scramble away. 'Come back here.'

'Too bad we don't have the cell phone. You could call the cops on me from here.' He lunged after her but she evaded him. 'I should leave, Cam. Now. It would keep the others safe if I did.'

'No.' One last tug and her heel clipped him hard on the chin. 'Dammit, Haley.' She rose. He yanked, pulling her down to the hard, gritty floor, ignoring the fight she put up-until she managed to knee him.

He sucked in a sharp breath of air and lost his grip on her.

Haley surged up to her knees, preparing to worm away from him, but he let out a pained breath and flattened her down with his hands. By the time he flipped her onto her back, they were both panting and furious. The dark prevented him from seeing her face clearly, but he had no trouble tasting her frustration.

'Let me go,' she choked out.

'You're not going anywhere without me tonight, Haley. Not until this thing is over.' Crawling up the length of her, he held her prisoner, but she renewed the fight. A flailing hand hit his chin, the chin she'd already bruised. Swearing, he gathered her hands together, then yanked her wrists over her head, anchoring them there. She squirmed and struggled beneath him, to no avail.

'Hold still a minute, would you?' he panted, resting his forehead on the ground beside her. 'Please, don't scream.' Who would have thought such a tiny thing could fight so nasty?

'I'm not a complete idiot,' she retorted, giving up bitterly.

Beneath him, her chest rose and fell harshly, her breathing uneven and raspy. Warmed from their wrestling, she no longer shivered. But now that she'd stopped fighting him, her body became soft and pliant under his, and he had to quell the urge to turn their position into something sexual.

He must not have been entirely successful.

'Dammit.' Her hands flexed in his as their hips slid together. 'Let me go.'

He lifted his head, but could still see nothing of her expression. 'Not until you stop this. I told you, I would have used the police's help, yes, I'd do anything-anything-to keep you safe.'

'Why?'

He sighed. 'Because I love you, Haley. Someday you're going to believe that.'

She fell silent, though he could almost hear the wheels of her brain spinning. Finally she said, 'It's just… new for me. All these feelings. I… I still have things to tell you.'

'Well, at the moment,' he said, irony heavy in his voice, 'I have nothing but time to listen.'

She made a noise that might have been a laugh. 'The man chasing us is Lloyd Branson. My ex-boss. I thought he was dead, but he's not. He's the one killing my team.'

'Why does he need you?'

She wiggled her wrists entrapped in his hands. 'You're hurting me, Cameron.'

He loosened his grip, but didn't let go, still afraid she'd take off to surrender herself to save him. Beneath him, he could feel her every line, her every torturous curve.

'Branson needs me to go back because he can't re-create the system, only I can. He doesn't know how. I've studied earth movement, both above and below sea level, for years now. He was just a businessman, though a damn shrewd one.'

'What, exactly, was this system?'

'It predicts earth movements.'

'Earthquakes?'

'And volcanic eruptions.'

He let that soak in. A cold breeze brushed over his skin, but he barely felt it. 'I thought your system monitored earth movement.'

'I never said that.'

She hadn't, he realized. He'd just assumed, because in his wildest dreams, he hadn't imagined this. 'A system like that would save a lot of lives.'

The sound that escaped her was more like a choked laugh than an agreement. He let go of her, then eased up to cup her face. Concentrating hard, he found that he could just barely make out the outline of her features. He didn't know if it was because he could actually see, or if he was just incredibly in tune with her, but her pain and suffering became his own. 'What happened to you down there, Haley?'

'My dream came true.'

But it was bitterness and defeat he heard, not joy. 'The system worked? You can predict?'

His fingers holding her face became wet. With her tears, he realized with great